POLL: Who is Jesus to You?

Since he is probably the most influential and/or followed man in history, i am curious about your opinion of who Jesus is - good, bad or indifferent .

 

A more accurate wording would be...

Since he is probably the most influential and/or followed "Fictional "man in history, i am curious about your opinion of who Jesus is - good, bad or indifferent .

 

Wow. I didn't think I had ever met anyone who still argued the non-existence of Jesus of Nazareth.

I'll quote Dr. Micheal Grant of Cambridge.

“To sum up, modern critical methods fail to support the Christ-myth theory. It has ‘again and again been answered and annihilated by first rank scholars.’ In recent years ‘no serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non-historicity of Jesus.’ ”

 

Show me the bones

 

I understand your skepticism, but you should realize that Christians are all making that same statement in support of their beliefs. LOL

Ironic how discovering Jesus' bones would finally convince people like you that he is real, while at the same time convincing many Christians that he was not the Christ.

Anyway, there are many examples of historic figures that we accept as real without actually having discovered their bones.

 

This is a very rich source of ancient texts attesting to his existence/impact from many different groups. Also, the non-historicity angle is addressed:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Jesus

There are more sources that attest to his existence, than almost any other historical figure. As it finishes, "Non-historicity is regarded as effectively refuted by almost all Biblical scholars and historians"

There may be many views as to who he was, but there would be no reason to make the suggested "fictional" inclusion.

 

A tattered piece of sheep skin with an original piece of prose and an authentic signature might do it.

How about a piece of furniture made by his own hand? Or was the son of god just an average carpenter who merited no renown for his skill?

 

What kind of historians, biblical historians?

 

I can see you base your learned opinions on the "University of Whatever the Hell I Think."

Who do you think wrote wikipedia? Or the major Dictionary/Encyclopedia sources? Why don't you try reading, instead of making wild assumptions and guesses?

Most biblical scholars are not particularly Christian, but rather liberal/secular in their outlook. Historians at places like Princeton University, far outnumber the places like the ICR.

 

To my knowledge we don't have any original prose from Alexander the Great. Rather we have a bunch of writings about him which paint very conflicting views of who he was, written years after the fact. To this day there aren't any firsthand accounts of him, yet his existence is said to be undeniable. OTOH, there is far more secular evidence to Jesus' existence, yet some people (although very few in the world of legitimate scholars) still choose to believe him as a mythical figure.